ORLANDO, Fla. — The Rangers sent their top executives to meet Cliff Lee on Monday in an attempt to retain the free-agent lefty, but the strong feeling among executives canvassed is that Lee will end up a Yankee.

As one American League general manager said yesterday, “The Lee-Yankee thing can’t not happen.” And another AL GM said, “The Rangers could, in theory, spend to keep him, but I do not think they will take that risk long-term that the Yankees will be willing to take.”

Texas owner Chuck Greenberg, team president Nolan Ryan and GM Jon Daniels were the contingent that went to Arkansas to meet Lee as Yankees GM Brian Cashman had done the week before.

“We did not have a dialogue with Cliff about the future since we acquired him [in July],” Daniels said. “We wanted to concentrate just on this season. So this was the right time now to talk about the future. We know that Cliff is going to have multiple attractive offers to pick from.”

An executive who worked for a team on which Lee played — and actually admires Lee — said he nevertheless believes the left will make his decision based on who pays him the most. Period. “And can anyone pay him more than the Yankees? I don’t think so.”

* Hal Steinbrenner arrived for the owners’ meetings today and tomorrow and re-stated his desire to keep both Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.

“We are dealing with two historic Yankees, so it is important to us,” Steinbrenner told The Post. “We’re doing our best, but this has to be fair to both sides or it is going to be rough.”

* The Yankees were described by a rival GM as working hard on their eighth-inning situation, since Kerry Wood could leave as a free agent. They have called representatives for about 12 free agents, including Pedro Feliciano, as Newsday first reported.

The best free-agent reliever is Rafael Soriano and the Yankees have checked in with his agent as a fallback position in the incredibly small likelihood that Rivera does not re-sign. Soriano is not an option to come in on a closer’s salary and serve as the set-up man to Rivera now and the closer-in-waiting for when Rivera eventually retires. The Yankees do not want to invest that kind of money in a set-up man and Soriano is determined to close now, said a person who speaks with the closer.

The Yankees are waiting to hear if Rivera wants to push for a two-year contract or is comfortable going — as they hope — one year at a time.

* Teams have asked the Yanks about all three of their outfielders — Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson and Brett Gardner — but the Yankees are being portrayed by other executives as not motivated to deal any of the trio.